I recently read Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality By Henry Cloud. It’s a great book, and here is a summary…
People who become leaders, or really successful, tend to have three qualities. Number one, they have some set of competencies. In other words, they know their field, their industry, their discipline, or whatever. If you are Bill Gates, it helps to know something about the computer industry. If you are going to be a leading surgeon, you have to know what you are doing. In other words, you can only fake it for so long, boys. So, get yourself in the library or wherever and master your craft. Get good at what you do. A CEO has mastered a set of competencies in the same way. You just have to get good at what you do, period. There are no shortcuts.
But, I continued in my miniseminar, there are a lot of people who are competent and good at what they do who don’t get to be leaders or ‘hugely’ successful. For someone to get to the level of accomplishment that they are asking about, he or she must possess the second ability. They have to be what I would call an alliance builder. In other words, they have to take their competencies and what they do well and build alliances with others who have competencies and resources and form relationships that are mutually beneficial. As a result, they leverage what they do well to much greater heights than just being ‘good’ at their job. They create alliances that make things a lot bigger. They forge relationships and partnerships with people like investors, regulators, distribution channels, their boards, city governments, Wall Street, or whoever it is that has the capacity to make what they are doing bigger.
Now, having said that, let’s get to the real issue that I would want to talk to them about. I would tell them that the people who possess the first two abilities are a dime a dozen. There is no shortage of talented, brainy people who are very, very good at what they do and are able to work the system and schmooze other people to get things done.
What is really missing in many people is the 3rd quality: Integrity
I have found this to be absolutely true. There are lots of bright, well connected people who are very successful. But why do so many of them have huge personal or legal problems? It’s because of a lack of integrity or character. Cloud says that character is the ability to meet the demands of reality, but integrity is the courage to meet those same demands. This goes hand in hand with another of my personal beliefs – be yourself and live a truly authentic life.
